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Monday, November 19, 2012

Detroit-Area Nurse Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Role in $13.8 Million Home Health Care Fraud Scheme

WASHINGTON—A Detroit-area registered nurse was sentenced today to serve
30 months in prison for his role in a nearly $13.8 million Medicare
fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of
the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney for the
Eastern District of Michigan Barbara L. McQuade; Special Agent in Charge
Robert D. Foley III of the FBI’s Detroit Field Office; and Special
Agent in Charge Lamont Pugh III of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Chicago Regional
Office.

Anthony Parkman, 41, of Southfield, Mich., was sentenced today by U.S.
District Judge Gerald E. Rosen in the Eastern District of Michigan. In
addition to his prison term, Parkman was sentenced to three years of
supervised release and was ordered to pay $450,988 in restitution,
jointly and severally with his co-defendants.

Parkman pleaded guilty on June 26, 2012, to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
According to Parkman’s plea agreement, beginning in approximately
December 2008, Parkman, a registered nurse, was paid to sign medical
documentation for Physicians Choice Home Health Care LLC, a home health
agency that billed and received payments from Medicare for home health
care services that were never rendered. Parkman admitted to not seeing
or treating the beneficiaries for whom he signed medical documentation
and admitted he knew that the documents he signed would be used to
support false claims to Medicare. Parkman was paid approximately $150
for each false and fictitious file that he signed.

Parkman was subsequently paid to sign falsified medical documentation
and files for First Care Home Health Care LLC, Quantum Home Care Inc.
and Moonlite Home Care Inc., which were Detroit-area home health care
companies owned by Parkman’s co-conspirators that billed Medicare for
services that were never rendered.

The four home health companies for which Parkman worked were paid in
total approximately $13.8 million by Medicare. From approximately
December 2008 through September 2011, Medicare paid approximately
$450,988 to the four home health care companies for fraudulent skilled
nursing claims based on falsified files signed by Parkman.

Nine of Parkman’s co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await
sentencing. Three co-defendants are fugitives, and six co-defendants
await trial.

This case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Catherine K. Dick of the
Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. It was investigated by the FBI and
HHS-OIG and was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force,
supervised by the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S.
Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Since its inception in March 2007, the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, now
operating in nine cities across the country, has charged more than 1,480
defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for more
than $4.8 billion. In addition, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services, working in conjunction with HHS-OIG, is taking steps to
increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent
providers.